Skool Loop: an Essential Tool for School Communication

Skool Loop, a free school app for your smartphone, has become the leading school communication app in New Zealand, with close to 800 schools using the mobile software to bring instant messaging to the world of parent-teacher interaction.

Like most innovative technologies, Skool Loop was developed to answer an unmet need; in this instance, the school communication space. For parents and caregivers, this need could be summed up as “What is happening at my child's school today that I should know about?". For teachers, the need is about getting more engagement from parents and providing quick and efficient communication.

Many schools are still using outdated forms of communication, including printed forms, emails and website notices.

Permission Slip? What Permission Slip?

How many of these have you found crumpled at the bottom of your child’s school bag? Skool Loop allows parents and caregivers to sign and send permission electronically – direct to the school. No more lost bits of paper. For the teacher, this is a huge time saver, not having to follow up on forms or continually remind students.

Unread Email Newsletters

Parents receive a deluge of daily emails that never get opened. The Skool Loop app includes a dedicated section where parents can access school newsletters, including past issues—all in one place. Users can click on any links embedded in the newsletter, which encourages more participation with minimal effort.

Websites not ideal for messaging

Over 50% of internet traffic is conducted on smartphones these days—as teachers, parents and caregivers; we expect to be able to use our mobiles for most, if not all communication needs. While school websites still play a vital role in delivering detailed information, for daily messaging most users prefer to receive information through a school message app rather than browsing a site on their phone.

For more and more schools who now use the Skool Loop app, this ease of communication is now in their hands. The best part? It’s completely free. The Skool Loop App is supported and funded by a small amount of local and regional advertising, which is vetted by the school to ensure the content and advertisers are appropriate.

Many other features make Skool Loop a ‘must-have’ tool for schools.

Broadcast your message

The ability for schools to send out a global notification through Skool Loop to all connected parents and caregivers is probably the school message app’s most valuable feature. No other method works as effectively and immediately. You could send out an email, but many people don't check email on their phones or only infrequently. Sending a text to everyone is possible, but complicated and expensive. Skool Loop users receive instant notifications on their phone—no delays. In an emergency, this feature could make a huge difference in the lives of your school community and provide peace of mind to your families.

Absence notification is another essential feature that is integral to Skool Loop. Parents or caregivers can choose to notify the school by phone, email or text. One of the app's most powerful functions is the parent-teacher calendar, which integrates with both the school's in-house schedule and can be added into personal calendars on your phone.

Skool Loop is available on iOS and Android and offers a complete solution for school messaging, attendance, newsletters and calendar access, all in one place.